Novel Pairings

Informational texts and short stories to accompany Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's memoir of his childhood in Brooklyn, New York, and Limerick, Ireland. A dark and disturbing account, Frank talks in gritty detail about being brought up in extreme poverty and with an alcoholic father. Frank describes the struggle his mother, Angela, had to simply feed him and his siblings. The family relied on relatives, the government, and whatever charity they could find to survive. The only positive note in the memoir are the stories that Frank's father passes on — old Irish tales that propel Frank forward. Angela's Ashes received a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1996, the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1997, and the Boeke Prize in 1997.